Simone Biles has a warm view on its history Olympic Championship.
The 27-year-old most decorated American Olympic gymnast took to Instagram to celebrate her team’s gold medal win on Tuesday, sharing a handful of photos from her celebratory moment. In her headingshe seemed to aim at former Olympic gymnast MyKayla Skinnerviral comments earlier this month about the future champions’ lack of “work ethic.”
“Lack of talent, laziness, Olympic champions,” Biles captioned her post, adding a trio of red heart, gold medal and American flag emojis.
Among those commenting was McKayla Maroney, who competed alongside Biles at the 2012 London Olympics as a member of the “Fierce Five.”
“It doesn’t get more iconic than this,” Maroney wrote on Biles’ latest post.
Then, appearing to reference Skinner, she added: “She played along and found out. Looks like I need to apologize just to redeem my first name.”
Biles’ husband, NFL player Jonathan Owensissued a similar statement, writing: “Find out and find out.”
Current Team USA gymnast Jordan Chiles added: “and that’s final!!”
Biles, Chiles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera won gold on home soil in the artistic gymnastics team finals on Tuesday, marking their first medal in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Their victory comes weeks later Skinner posted a YouTube video that has since been deleted on July 3, which questioned everyone but Biles’ dedication to the sport, among other things.
“Besides Simone, I feel like the talent and depth is not what it used to be,” she said in the video that was captured and shared on social media. “I just noticed, like, I mean, obviously a lot of girls don’t work that hard. Girls just don’t have the work ethic.”
Biles apparently responded to the comments at the time, sharing on Instagram Threads“Not everyone needs a microphone and a platform.” Chiles’ mother, Gina, also tweeted“Wow. She actually said that out loud and posted it. That’s something.”
Skinner followed up with a mea culpa on her Instagram Story, claiming that her comments were “misinterpreted” and that she never intended to hurt anyone. The 2020 Olympic vault silver medalist added that she is “seriously so happy” for the team that was selected to represent Team USA in Paris this year.
Biles was filled with gratitude amid her Olympic return. The athlete — who is often called gymnastics’ GOAT, or “The Greatest of All Time” — also posted a collection of competition images on Instagram with the caption, “Grateful to do what I love.”
This year marks Biles’ third Olympics and her first after she withdrew from several events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. At that time, Skinner took Biles’ place in the vault competition and won a silver medal.
On Tuesday, Biles was joined by her husband as she won her eighth Olympic medal. The achievement makes her the most decorated American Olympic gymnast and ties her with 1904 Olympian Anton Heida for the most gold medals won by an American gymnast.
“Witnessing history every time you step on the mat 😍🔥,” Owens wrote on Instagram. “Congrats baby on becoming the most decorated American gymnast in Olympic history!!!! Wow!!!! 8 of them!!!!! So thankful I was there to see it ❤️💙”
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